With Democrats, There's a Lot of Frustration Behind the Criticism

Some of the same polling data that those opposed to Trump are celebrating, watching his job approval rating fall to levels below where it was during his first failed term, is showing the Democratic party members in Congress getting a 29% job approval rating, with only 7% "strongly approving" of the job they are doing.  That kind of puts a damper on a celebration, huh? 

Well, what did you expect? 

It's hard to put a finger on just exactly where it was that things turned south, but if I were a professional polling analyst, and I was interested in truth, not just projecting a political image, I'd be looking into what transpired around the time of Biden's first debate with Trump, and the fallout that happened afterward.  The image that Democrats have built for themselves has never really been sharp, clear and focused, but that was a disaster of epic proportions.  We looked like the GOP for about six weeks, with shadowed influence built around money interests calling the shots and trying to run the show.  

That's when I realized that the hope we had placed in the fact that mountains of evidence had been produced and that Trump had finally and actually been indicted for his massive crimes would wind up coming to nothing.  I realized, when the Justice Department and the attorney general Merrick Garland went completely silent after a tremendous congressional investigation made the case for proving Trump's guilt as the seditious inciter of an insurrection against the Capitol, that this was going to come to nothing.  

And look, I get it.  Trump was the insurrectionist, inciting violence for the purpose of overturning the results of an election he clearly could not prove was "stolen" from him.  The Republicans are the ones who have basically pooped their brains out and turned into walking zombie yes men, lacking the will or the patriotism to serve their country as anything but a shill for a con artist.  

But when Democrats had the chance to stop this from happening, they chose to give the old status quo, politics-as-usual, give-and-take, compromise and dealmaking that the GOP abandoned during the Reagan Administration one more try.  That was the safe route.  We got the rhetoric, "Trump is an existential threat to democracy."  But nothing was done about bringing him to justice.  Excuses were made about Republican justice appointees and the delays he made in his trials that stretched cases out for years, a travesty in a system where the rule of law is supposed to be the way things are governed.  

The power to remove him permanently as an existential threat to American democracy belonged to the Democrats who controlled both houses of Congress and the presidency.  This was, and is, a serious threat, that we are now experiencing, and it could have been avoided by breaking the filibuster and packing the Supreme Court.  Packing the court would have expitided his insurrection and document theft trials in a couple of ways.  One, it would have eliminated the immunity ruling he was able to hide behind in the long run.  Two, the cases themselves could have been taken by the court, and the trial held there.  Or, the court could simply have ruled, based on the evidence in the Congressional investigation, that Trump was an insurrectionist, and be done with it.  

We would not be experiencing now what we are seeing if that had been done then.  Yes, it certainly could have been criticized as being political, or looking that way.  But it would have effectively protected the democracy we have now.  

So why are we expecting the Democrats to be bold, take risks and protect our democracy now when they wouldn't do it when they had the chance?  That explains the frustration we are seeing and hearing.

Most Are Just Sitting on their Asses in their Offices, Waiting It Out, Doing Nothing and Protecting Their Own Narrow Interest

There were five different notices on my social media account today, telling me how bad things are getting economically, that we are headed into recession, that indiscriminate cuts are being made, all what we know.  Each was accompanied by a request to send money to whatever politician was making the plea, because of course, that's going to resolve the problem.  

Nothing I've seen from anyone who has asked for money will solve the problem.  I have yet to see the kind of risk, and boldness, that, had it been applied when we were in power, would have eliminated the problem.  Even now, the willingness of Democratic party senate leadership to cave, and not to stand firm when they had a chance to make a difference, means that whatever they might have to say is not going to be taken seriously.  Why support something with my political contribution that is not what I think is the right thing to do?  

Looking Elsewhere for a Real Hero to Come Along

The two sides of American partisan politics, which are largely responsible for the impasse we've reached, and for the rise and support of a demagogue in an office, exercising power the Constitution clearly does not give him, are not the place to look for resistance that will be successful.  We need new leadership that will take risks and make bold moves when opportunities arise to do so.  If we'd have taken the steps to pack that damn Supreme Court when we had the power to do it, the benefits would have been both immediate and long term...

The whole support system for the corrupted politics we have experienced, the infamous Citizens United ruling, could have been immediately overturned, and the money that now runs American politics could have been completely and totally removed from the system.  

Roe v. Wade would still stand.  The implications of that are staggering. 

But Democratic party leadership didn't want to appear political.  That fact took priority over protecting the American people from a second term under a demagogue, a direct threat to the Constitution, to American Democracy and to our own sense of patriotism and pride.  

So don't get prickly over the criticism that Democrats are getting now, because it is well deserved.